Body of Water (14 page)

For all his size and strength Dom looked like the most fragile of boys at the children's home, haunted by the memory of losing their parents or some recent experience at the hands of foster parents that no child deserved. I fought back the urge to fling myself across the room and hug him, not knowing how he'd react.

"Ah looked back at my mother. She waited patiently, her expression unreadable tae ma new eyes. Ah turned back and pulled ma body out of the water. Ah took a step, maybe two before I heard the sound of an engine behind me. Ah turned to see a boat off shore. Fishermen. Ah paid them no notice. The sun came oot, felt so good on this skin. As Ah turned my head up to the light Ah saw that the fishermen were almost upon us. The men warned me tae get away. Ah heard a shot and my youngest sister screamed, rolled over in the water, but then didn't move again. Her blood clouded the water around her. It was too late for the rest of them, too. Before my family could dive to safety the rest of the men opened fire. All dead but me. Ah took a bullet meant for another but Ah lived." He rubbed his side unconsciously. "It was the only time that being a man wasn't a curse."

"What are you saying? You're a seal?"

"Ah'm a Selkie. When ma sealskin is removed I become a human of sorts."

"And Mackay, how did he come to take you?"

"He found me on the rocks, naked save for ma mother's blood. Ah'd pulled her body from the water. He got me clothes, food, but Ah wouldn't go with him. Ah slept on the rocks every night and he visited me every day until..."

I realised what had happened then. "He took your sealskin, didn't he?" I had spent so long thinking that no one's life was as bad as mine that I'd never considered that Dom's aggressive behaviour might be caused by his own rage against something that he couldn't control; the death of his family and the theft of his sealskin. I couldn't help but scoot across the floor, as close to Dom as I could get, before reaching up and touching his face, my palm resting below his ear as I ran my thumb along his cheekbone.

Dom's head hung low, his face shrouded in the darkness. It was getting colder. We sat in silence for several minutes, our breathing the only movement.

Eventually Dom spoke again. "When our sealskins are stolen, we can hear the sound of tearing in our souls. I can still hear it, feel it. It's like dying withoot the peace after."

"Why do you stand out on the beach every night?"

"Ah'm waiting."

"For what?"

"For peace but it doesn't come. Maybe if Ah wait long enough the sea will take me back before Ah forget ma old life."

"Do you have anyone left?"

He didn't speak and that was all the answer I needed. If there were more like him out there they weren't his family and I knew exactly how that felt.

He took my silence to mean something else. "Ye don't believe me? Ah understand." Taking me by the wrist he took my hand away from his face and turned away from me.

"Dom, where did you go last night when you disappeared?"

"Ah can't tell ye."

He didn't want to tell me. "You must be cold," I said, "and I'm uncomfortable. Let's go and find somewhere warmer. I don't know about you but I think better with a drink inside me."

"What do ye need tae think about?"

"How we're going to get your sealskin back."

Dom pulled an empty bottle of whiskey out from under the pile of rugs and looked guilty. "Ah drank the place dry weeks ago."

"Then we'll go to the pub. It'll be nice to have some normal people about us, especially now."

The pub was indeed warm. The smell of wood-smoke greeted us as we stepped in out of the cold. Dom's face glowed red and his hands looked stiff while he flexed them with a grimace, cupped them over his mouth, and blew hard.

"You got company, Dom?" said an unfamiliar barmaid, looking surprised.

"This is Leven. He's Mackay's beuy."

"Mackay has a son?!" She looked at me, unconvinced, and then remembered her job. "What will it be?"

"Two ales please. Ah'll be back in a moment," Dom said, and he disappeared through the door at the end of the bar.

She placed the glasses on a dog-eared bar towel and cast a look over me. "We haven't seen Mackay in here for a while now."

"He isn't well."

"Is that so?" She seemed suspicious now. "What's wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure. He doesn't talk about it."

"Is it AIDS?" The question shocked me and I became aware of the general sense of quiet in the pub. All eyes rested on me. "My uncle in Stromness had AIDS. Withered away he did. All chicken legs and a pot belly. Said it was his meds."

Dom reappeared at my side. "What's going on?"

My face finally felt hot. "She was asking about Mackay."

"That's kind of ye, Bessie. He sends his regards."

Dom tossed some coins on the bar, picked up the drinks, and steered me towards the fireplace.

"That woman is a wicked old cow," said Dom, falling into a chair that looked as old and fragile as Mackay himself. "She's been spreading rumours that he has some sort of disease caused by laying with men."

If it hadn't felt so awkward, I might have smiled at the quaint way Dom had put it.

"Did Mackay come here much?"

"He did once he got bored of me."

"Well you are pretty shitty company, Dom."

"Mind your language, boy," said a sturdy voice from behind me, causing me to spill my drink and swear again.

"Millie!" Dom stood and then lurched past me to hug an old woman so tightly that I thought she might disappear into his jumper entirely. I was surprised to feel jealousy towards her.

"Let go of me you big oaf," the old woman's muffled voice said. "You'll be the death of me."

"Ye've survived more than that," Dom chuckled, but he let the old woman go.

Millie staggered a little and then sat in a chair that Dom pulled up for her. She tugged her tatty woollen hat down over her ears, snatched my glass, and took a big swig, smacking her hairy lips together in satisfaction. "And you must be Leven. Maggs told me about you. She said you'll be leaving us soon."

"Don't believe everything you hear."

She winked at Dom. "I like this one already. He's got spirit."

"He's going tae help me, Millie." There was a solemnity to his voice that sealed the agreement between us and Millie was witness to it.

She raised her eyebrows and let out a long whistle. "You've got your work cut out for you, lad. Dom here has been waiting a long time. Let's hope that what you've agreed to won't end up being dangerous for your health."

"You know about him?"

"Of course I do. I was the first one he asked for help."

"But you didn't help him?"

"I tried, but..."

"But what?"

"It nearly killed me."

"What do you mean, it nearly killed you?"

Millie drained my glass and shuffled her chair closer to me. Dom leaned in to listen. "Mackay has friends in low places, if you catch my drift."

"Criminals?"

She looked at Dom and chuckled. "Something like that. They're undesirables but they're of a," she indicated Dom, "different variety."

"Selkies?"

Dom made a choking sound.

"Keep your voice down, boy. Not Selkies. Fin-men."

"What are they?"

"Sorcerers, shape shifters, thieves. They usually take us mortals but if you need something to be concealed you go to them."

"And you think Mackay gave them Dom's sealskin?"

"I'm sure of it."

"How so?"

"Because of what happened when I got close to it. It was last year, a few days before Christmas. A fine, clear night lit only by the stars as the moon was dark. I'd covered almost every square foot of the island and unless the Fin-men had hidden the skin in the ocean itself I was sure that I was almost upon it. I was on the northern coastal road when I saw something moving towards me. It was big. Too big to be a man. When I realised what it was I knew it might be too late for me."

"You recognised it?"

"Only from the stories I'd heard growing up. My mother was a spiteful woman who frightened me with stories of it when I was bad. Nothing scares me like the Nuck."

"The Nuck?"

"An evil thing. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was a man on horseback but you'd be wrong. It's an unholy combination of fiend and steed. It can't be outrun and you'd be mad to turn your back on it."

"So what did you do?"

"Through my terror I remembered the one dim light of hope in my mother's stories. The Nuck can't cross fresh water."

I laughed. I had barely come to terms with the concept that Dom was a Selkie and now they expected me to swallow this? Maggs said she had only allowed Dom to tell me the unusual truth about himself. Millie must have lost her marbles and Dom was naive enough to believe her.

"Hang on, you're telling me that a creature that evil can't cross a puddle?"

Millie's expression turned thunderous. "This information might save your life, boy. If you've any hope of helping Dom you can be sure you'll need to face the Nuck."

She needed humouring. "Go on."

"I changed direction as close as I could to the stream that ran to my right. The Nuck changed direction too and sped up. Seeing my chance slipping away, I tore towards the running water as fast as I could. As soon as I thought I might make it I jumped with all my strength. It bellowed as I left the ground and I felt its breath, hot as fire, on my back. Then the pain blossomed on the back of my neck. I don't know if it caught a handful of my hair or set light to it but," she turned her head away from me and pulled up her hat to reveal a raw swathe of skin, "it won't heal."

I looked from Millie to Dom and back again. This felt like too much and the tenuous belief I had that Dom was a Selkie had been stretched tighter by this tale.

Millie tugged her hat back down into place and snorted. She knew I didn't believe her.

As Dom and I left the pub, I had to run to keep up with him. "Nice old girl, isn't she? Shame she's as mad as a brush."

"Ye don't believe her?" Dom stopped, surprised.

I almost ran into him. "I think she believes she saw something but how could something like that exist? It's crazy."

"These islands are ancient. Don't underestimate the power of the magic that lives here." Dom started to walk again, shaking his head.

"What? Where are you going?"

Dom continued to walk and said nothing.

I watched him go, raised my arms, and let them fall back to my sides. A smart retort evaded me so I ran after him. By the time I caught up, he'd reached a house with a stone wall. The place was deserted and in ruins. It felt colder here than anywhere else I'd been so far.

Dom scanned the outside of the house and then vaulted over the wall. He took a tentative step towards the structure and then turned back to face me.

"Seen a ghost?"

"Of course not."

"Just stand there and listen. Feel the energy in this place and Ah'll tell ye a story."

I fought the sudden urge to laugh but fell silent as Dom started to speak.

"Folk avoid this place now, especially at night. Years ago, a mother too full of grief tae let her two dead children go, secretly buried them in the garden. Folk got suspicious after a while and, unable to explain where they'd gone, she was arrested and taken away. Soon after, strange lights were seen in the garden. Witnesses were dismissed as drunks on account of this house being so near tae the pub but it soon became a place tae fear. Then police returned and started to dig. They found the children's bodies and took them but the lights remained."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Be quiet. Can ye feel them?"

"Don't be stupid. How-"

Dom closed his eyes. "Can ye feel them?"

I opened my mouth but stopped when something tickled my neck. Thinking it might be a loose curl I swept it away with my hand but the sensation moved down the centre of my back, like someone was tracing my spine with a cold finger tip.

Behind Dom, a cool blue light illuminated the front wall of the crumbling house. I watched it grow brighter then begin to move upwards. A tiny smile tilted Dom's mouth. He can't have known it was there but perhaps he felt it.

The light spread out and split in two. For a moment it looked like Dom had sprouted luminous wings but they continued to rise above his head and above the roof until they were out of view.

I looked back at Dom but he had disappeared from the spot in which he had been standing. As I looked left and right someone grabbed me hard, wrenching me off my feet. I cried out and heard Dom's deep laugh as the big man swung me around and around.

"Let go, you bastard!"

Dom dumped me on the ground in a heap. I sprang to my feet and launched myself at him. He easily avoided me and laughed harder still. "Ye can't catch me, moppy."

That didn't stop me from trying again. This time I fell flat on my face. Dom reached down and pulled me up by the back of my jeans. I tried to punch him but he caught me by the wrist.

"Ye might want tae think twice aboot that," he warned me, his voice suddenly low.

I glared at him defiantly and tried to struggle but he held me fast, rendering me useless.

"Go on, I dare ye."

I went limp in his grip, furious but overcome with the realisation that if Dom could overpower me so easily then he'd pulverise me in a balls-out, man-to-man fight. Dangling in his paw seemed like a safer option after all.

He sensed the fight had gone from me and set me back down. Rubbing my wrists, I sat on the wall and he joined me. "What was that?"

"Ah told ye what it was."

"It can't be."

"Why not?"

"It just can't."

Dom chuckled and threw his arm around me, pulling me to him in a drunken gesture. I hadn't noticed him drink that much during Millie's story. "Wouldn't ye like tae see yer loved ones again, if they passed on, even if they were just a light in the sky?"

"They don't come back."

"That's not what Ah asked ye."

I remained silent as tears began to stream down my face. I folded up, my hands covering my scalp, huge sobs wracking my body until I gasped for air. Dom reached out and patted me awkwardly on the shoulder.